Helen Pedley at the Streets by the Sea launch. 'The history of the town is laid out in the landscape.' (ABC :Fernbach )

The Tully-based librarian has written two books using street names as the springboard for the history.

"The history of the town is laid out in the landscape," said Ms Pedley.

"That's people's addresses, that's where they live and it's a part of the history of the community," she said.

Ms Pedley's most recent book Streets by the Sea: A Cardwell Chronicle was released earlier this month with 3 Brigade's Colonel John Simeoni the guest speaker at the launch.

Ms Pedley says with the military connections of the town's namesake Edward Cardwell and many of Cardwell's streets named after former defence personnel, it was important to have a military presence at the event.

"[Edward Cardwell] had a lot to do with army reforms but also the more recent streets of Cardwell were named on the advice of the RSL to the council," she said.

During the creation of the book Ms Pedley endeavoured to use original accounts from letters or newspaper articles to distinguish it from other histories of the town.

"Premier Herbert his original letters are very interesting, he comments on Governor Bowen and his wife and those sort of comments are first-hand evidence of what the people were like who have streets named after them.